She was three years old, and lived in decaying inner-city housing. When she was admitted to the hospital she was stuporous, extremely pale, and her brain was swollen—a condition known as encephalopathy, the result of severe lead poisoning. Her doctor treated her with drugs called chelating agents. And she recovered .
This child was the turning point for Herbert Needleman, now at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. At first, he recalls, "I felt triumphant; I had made a good diagnosis; I had done the right treatment; and I saw the child getting better. Then when I told the mother that her daughter couldn't go back into that home, she asked me: 'Where am I going to move? Every house on the block is the same.' Confronted by the mother's realities, I began to realize that it is not enough just to give a drug. The disease is out there in the world, not just in ...